Our most recent English lesson with an NBA player is Channing Frye teaching the term “breakthrough.” I watched Channing play for the last few years when he was a Portland Trailblazer. And like most people in Portland, I liked him a lot. He fit the city really well–he did public service announcements for green issues and blogged about how much he liked the restaurants. Channing met his wife in Portland and has kept his apartment here after moving to the Phoenix Suns this season.

I remember when I first heard that Channing Frye had hit three threes in one game. I thought, “Good for him!” But then I heard the same thing about the next game. And the one after that. It appeared Channing had had a breakthrough!

Although he didn’t see much playing time during his tenure with Portland, when Frye and Suns came to Portland to play the Trailblazers last month, Channing had become a starter. Blazer fans usually boo when the visiting team’s starting lineup is announced, but when Channing’s name was called everyone cheered. He went on to make 5 three-pointers that night! Maybe doing this interview earlier in the day helped him get ready.

There is a 44% chance this shot went in. That’s more than 10% better than ever before in Channing’s professional career!

Channing on his balcony in Portland.

A strange dream came true for me when I found out I was going to get to interview a member of GWAR for an English lesson. First of all, I’m a big GWAR fan, but more importantly it would be the first time a character would be giving an English lesson on English, baby! I hope Bart Simpson can do one some day.

Of course, Bart Simpson is less of a real character than GWAR because Bart doesn’t cover you with goo. Filming the concert footage for this video was difficult because I had to duck and cover the camera each time the blood started spraying my way! Silvia Ruiz, who took the photos you see here, slipped on the slick concrete in front of the stage and hurt her elbow.

GWAR’s representation was really into the idea of one of them doing an English lesson. I got the idea to ask them from this video by Spin. Shortly after, I discovered this video that features the band in a classroom and knew it would be a perfect fit.

For a while, the plan was for me to interview Balsac, the guitarist. It would have been tricky. Look how tall he is!

Of course, interviewing Oderus wasn’t all that easy either. Since a lot of GWAR’s music is about sex and drugs, we had to throw out whole questions that were deemed inappropriate to the site. Our video editor Matt Miadich did a great job of cutting out an intelligible interview.

We only spent about three minutes with Oderus backstage at a show in Portland, Oregon, but just before he took off, I got my picture with him. Too bad I’m making a funny face!